[I think that you already all know that our March 3 regularly scheduled CRA board meeting was cancelled at the direction of CRA Chair Don Bellfield, with no explanation given. And I hope I have kept you all updated regarding the legal action for a Writ of Mandamus against both Bellfield and Dolan.]
Well, another week has gone by, with no action by Judge Susan Burke in the our Writ of Mandamus case. We have sent her my statement regarding the cancellation of the March 3 CRA board meeting, and our analysis that that was not proper under city ordinance.
At around noon Thursday, I wrote an email to all the CRA board members, noting that it had been 24 hours since the meeting cancellation, with still no explanation. That remains true as of Saturday morning. And I said a lot more - see below.
Directly below is Don Bellfield's one sentence response:
"Our next Board meeting will be Wednesday April 7, 2010."
No, "I'm busy now, but I'll write more tonight" or similar. And, of course, nothing since. This is such a slap in the face to all the board members.
So, the implication is that he does not want to meet (or probably even be seen in public) until the new board members are chosen, and he suspects I won't be one of them. It also means there will be NO monthly meeting in March, not just no "meeting at the regularly scheduled time and place" as required by ordinance.
A board member wrote a supportive note to me (not copied to the rest of the board). He noted that he had talked to CRA Manager Lee Reid, who said he
also had received no reason from Don Bellfield for the cancellation. That leaves the question, why did the CRA staff cancel the meeting just on Don's say-so? Are they "in" on this - or did Don just call CRA Program Assistant Sharon Pelka and ask her to do it, and she figured it must be authorized. I lean toward the latter, actually. When I have scheduled Policy Committee meetings, I just call her and she puts out the official notice. Of course, once the notice of cancellation was on the web for the public to see, no matter whether unauthorized, it would be improper to hold the meeting under the Open Meeting laws. So there was no undoing it, even if Lee Reid or someone else wanted to.
The only other response to my email or to Don's has been a note from another board member that he will be out of town and unavailable for the April meeting.
Where is everyone else?? They seem to just quietly take it. Of course, just being on the CRA means getting used to being treated like crap.
Still anxiously awaiting word from the judge. This is just beginning - it's going to get a lot more interesting and intense before it is over!
